What to read about managing people
Management Studies in Crisis: Fraud, Deception and Meaningless Research. By Dennis Tourish. Cambridge University Press; 312 pages; $32.99 and £24.99 A good place to start in studying management is to understand how much nonsense and jargon-filled waffle has been written on the subject.
Dennis Tourish, an academic, shows that the rot started in the early 20th century with Frederick Winslow Taylor, the exponent of “scientific management" who used back-of-the-envelope calculations rather than detailed analysis. He relied on a much-cited study of the Hawthorne electric plant, which collected data from just five employees, two of whom were replaced when their answers were deemed unsatisfactory by the researchers. Some management experts are continuing as Taylor began.
One recent study found that 70% of management papers contain too little data to allow for independent verification. Reading Mr Tourish’s book (reviewed here) acts as an inoculation against academic claptrap. The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses and Corporate Bullshit. By Martin Lindstrom.
John Murray Learning; 256 pages; $28.00 and £14.99 Business executives complain about government bureaucracy, but all too often the real cause of their frustration is their own company’s red tape. Budgets require junior managers to travel at 6am and stay in out-of-town hotels; rules pointlessly forbid employees from keeping personal items on their desks; reporting requirements waste time and distort behaviour. Then there are the meetings at which the staff take minutes and waste hours.
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